Print Cost Calculator

Run, copies

Pages a copy

Price of a sheet

Printing one page

Print both sides

Binding one copy

Waste and setup, %

Markup, %

Result

Cost of the run$5,204.00
Price with markup$7,285.60
Price a copy$72.86
Sheets of paper420
Paper$504.00
Printing and binding$4,700.00

Paper is rarely the expensive part

Calculates the cost of a print run with paper, printing, binding and waste, and the price at the markup you want.

Costing a print run means separating things that scale by sheet from things that scale by page. Duplex printing halves the paper but not the printing, because both sides still have to be imaged.

Then there is waste. Setting up a job, checking colour and the odd misfeed consume sheets before the first good copy appears, and on a short run that overhead is a real share of the bill.

What this calculator shows

The cost of the run and the price at your markup
The price of a single copy
The paper and the printing split out separately

What to keep in mind

The waste percentage applies to the paper, since that is what a misfeed or a setup sheet consumes.
Printing is priced per page rather than per sheet, which is how print shops quote a double-sided job.

FAQs

How much does duplex printing save?

Half the paper and nothing else. On a job where paper is a tenth of the cost that is a five percent saving, not fifty.

Why is a short run so expensive per copy?

Because setup, checking and waste are fixed. Spread over a hundred copies they are significant; over ten thousand they disappear.

What markup is normal?

Thirty to fifty percent for ordinary work. Rush jobs and unusual formats carry more, because both consume attention rather than materials.

Should equipment depreciation be in the page price?

Yes. The per-page printing price ought to include toner, service and the machine itself spread over its expected life, not just consumables.

Worked example

A hundred booklets

Input: 100 copies, 8 pages, duplex, 1.2 a sheet, 4 a page, 15 binding, 5 percent waste, 40 percent markup

Output: 5,204 in cost, 7,286 at the quoted price

Note: That is 420 sheets and about 73 a copy. The paper is 504 of the total — under a tenth, while printing and binding are the rest.

Useful links

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Print Cost Calculator

Result

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